Billing and limits
Usage limits, cloud caps, and what happens when you hit them.
Limits keep Proliferate Cloud predictable for individuals and organizations. Local work (the desktop app, local checkouts, worktrees) is never limited or metered; everything below applies to managed cloud sandboxes and the managed model gateway.
What's limited
- Concurrent cloud sandboxes. Free accounts get one active cloud sandbox at a time. Paid plans raise this limit; check Settings → Billing for your current one.
- Connected cloud repos. Free accounts can set up cloud for 2 repositories. Paid plans raise this too.
- Compute credits. Every hour a cloud sandbox is actually running draws down your compute credit balance (tracked in PCUs). Once it hits zero, starting new cloud work is blocked unless top up is enabled.
- LLM credits. Every call through Proliferate's managed model gateway draws down a separate credit balance. The gateway hard-stops requests once it's spent, the same way a maxed-out API key would.
- Team members and workflows per person. Free caps an account at 5 team members and 1 workflow per person; Core and Enterprise remove both caps.
Compute and LLM usage are tracked as two separate balances. Running out of one doesn't affect the other.
What happens when you hit a hard limit
When a limit is fully exhausted and there's no top up to fall back on, Proliferate blocks new cloud sandbox starts and shows you exactly why:
| Reason | What it means |
|---|---|
| Included usage exhausted | Your plan's included compute credits are used up for this period. |
| Overage/top up disabled | You're out of included credits and top up isn't turned on. |
| Overage cap reached | Top up is on, but you've hit the cap you set. |
| Payment needs attention | An invoice failed to charge. |
| Sandbox limit reached | You're already running the maximum number of concurrent cloud sandboxes for your plan. |
You'll see the reason in the sidebar when creating a cloud workspace, and on the workspace itself if it's still spinning up.
Cloud workspace blocked screen
A cloud workspace's status screen when billing blocks it from starting, showing the paused-state title and reason (for example 'Cloud usage is paused because your included sandbox hours are exhausted') with next steps.
A hard limit can also pause a cloud sandbox that's already running, not just block new ones. If your account runs out of credits (or overage) while a sandbox is active, that sandbox gets paused the same way it would if you'd stopped it yourself: your work and chat history are kept, and it wakes back up once the underlying issue is resolved and you resume it.
Raising a limit
- Turn on top up (Settings → Billing, organization owners and admins). Once enabled, going over your included compute or LLM credits bills the overage automatically at a per-unit rate instead of blocking you, up to a cap you set. The default cap is $20 and you can raise it from the same screen.
- Fix a payment issue from the Stripe billing portal, linked from the Billing pane. Once the payment method is updated, the block clears on its own.
- Upgrade your plan for a larger baseline of included compute and LLM credits, plus higher concurrent-sandbox and repo limits. See Plans & usage for what each plan includes.
- Free up a sandbox slot by archiving or stopping another cloud workspace, if you've hit the concurrent-sandbox limit specifically.
Settings → Billing → top up toggle
The Billing pane's top up control: an on/off switch, the current overage cap, and how much overage has been used this period.
Storage and history
Archiving, pruning, or deleting a cloud workspace follows the same rules as a local one: your chat history stays durable and separate from what's on disk. See Lifecycle & storage for exactly what each action does and doesn't remove. There's no separate plan-based limit on how much transcript or artifact history you can keep.